The German Constitution

[p. 483]

|483| which, if the whole is arranged according to a general hierarchy, must likewise be covered by regular levies; whereas the state which, as regards what [is required] in these institutions, which go only to the contingent and the particular, such as the administration of justice, the costs of education, contributions for the support of poverty, and so on, leaves the costs too to these particulars that are interested in them, sees these costs defrayed without the form of levies. Whoever needs the judge and the advocate, as well as an educator, or provides for the poor at his own prompting, pays here alone. There is no levy; no one pays for a court, an advocate, an educator, a clergyman whom he does not need; just as, when [someone] is chosen by the members themselves for the lower magisterial offices, of the court, of the administration of the affairs of cities [and] corporations, [the one chosen] is paid by the honour that thereby befalls him, but must demand payment from the state, to which he would have to render service, because here this inner honour is lacking. Both circumstances — even if, in relation to the former, more money should be spent by the people, which is not to be believed — bring about: the first, the difference that no one spends money for something unnecessary to him, for a state need that is not general; the other, a real saving for all; both, that the people feel themselves treated there with reason and according to necessity, here with trust and freedom — a circumstance which makes up the difference chiefly of the second and third kind of calculation.

The mechanistic hierarchy, supremely intelligent and devoted to noble purposes, shows trust in its citizens in nothing, and so can expect none from them; — it holds itself secure in no performance whose command and execution it has not itself arranged, and so banishes voluntary gifts and sacrifices, shows the subject its conviction of his lack of understanding and its contempt for his

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160

DE

Comments

Leave a Reply